The present invention relates generally to the field of data storage networks and data protection. In conventional Redundant Array of Independent Disks, herein referred to simply as RAID, there are a number of data drives (D) and likely one or more parity drives (P). When a write request is processed, data is written to a stripe that covers both the D and P drives. In the event of a disk failure, reconstruction of data that was on the failed drive is performed by reading data from the remaining drives, XOR'ing the result, and writing that result to a spare drive. XOR'ing the result is a term used to describe comparing data to find one or the other, but not both. This process is time consuming and processor intensive, furthermore the time for reconstruction of data increases linearly with drive capacity. Doubling the drive size doubles the rebuild time.